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The 1987 NASCAR Winston Cup Series headed from Daytona to Pocono to start the second half of the season. Eli Gold welcomes us to Pennsylvania for what will be an abbreviated version of this race. (Seriously, I found three versions of this race posted to YouTube and all were at around 40:30.) Gold by the way looks like Bruce Prichard in a most tame version of Brother Love. He is joined by Dr. Jerry Punch. (Pat Patterson – but not THAT Pat Patterson is doing pit road interviews.) They talk about the uniqueness of Pocono Raceway and the finish to the 1986 race, which saw Tim Richmond win.
Last year’s runner-up Ricky Rudd talks about the importance of pit stops at Pocono and hopes he can finish one spot better. Alan Kulwicki has participated in three races at Pocono but has never finished a race. He will start second in a car they call “Fonzie” AAAAYYYYEEEEE!!!
Tim Richmond, looking for his fourth straight win at Pocono, won the pole but has trouble trying to buckle himself in during his interview. He says he’ll be conservative to start until he figures out what the car has, and then he’ll drive the living something or other out of it. (He didn’t swear, I just couldn’t make out what he said.)
As they roll out, it’s noted that Dale Earnhardt, with seven wins on the season, will start 16th.
After a recap of the ARCA race from the day before (including appearances by long-time ARCA team owner Bill Venturini and 1969 Daytona 500 runner-up Charlie Glotzbach), the Summer 500 goes green. Elliott quickly catches up to Richmond and takes the lead on the second lap.
An early caution due to Jimmy Means having engine trouble brings the leaders to pit road. By lap 22, Earnhardt is leading the race. Not sure what happened to Elliott because he is not being shown in the Top 5. Richmond is running second with Neil Bonnett, Dale Jarrett and Kyle Petty in the Top 5.
They are five and six wide on the restart but up-front Richmond retakes the lead. Earnhardt also soon loses second to Bill Elliott. Geoff Bodine scraps the wall and brings out a caution. The leaders head back to pit road, with Richmond retaining the lead. Earnhardt comes out second.
Pat Patterson talks to Bodine in the garage area. Bodine indicates he had steering problems that sent him into the wall. He says there’s a lot of rocks and stones on the track.
Back from commercial, Terry Labonte and Bobby Allison are leading the field. Bill Elliott is headed to the pits for an unscheduled pit stop and just like that, there’s a wreck. Harry Gant and Bobby Hillin, Jr. are involved.
They interview Bill Elliott in the garage area. It sounds like they’ve got a PA announce system talking over him so I couldn’t really make out what he was saying. Sounds like “the car was running good until it wasn’t and so we’ll go home and try again next week.”
The caution really jumbled up the order. Bonnett, Brett Bodine, Ken Schrader, Richmond and Earnhardt are your Top 5 as they head back to green. Bodine gets past Bonnett for the lead but racing under green is brief as Bobby Gerhart, who seemed to run the ARCA series forever, goes up in smoke (or rather his car does).
I looked it up and while Gerhart ran 341 races in the ARCA series, his first wasn’t until 1988. He ran 24 Cup Series races, with his first coming right here at Pocono in 1983. He continued to race part-time in ARCA until a heart attack in 2020 (!!!) forced him into retirement.
More pit stops! They show Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace and Richard Petty. Tim Richmond is still in the pits. Earnhardt has the lead on the restart but Wallace has smoke billowing out of that car. Wallace gets black-flagged and finally heads to pit road for service.
Under caution for Steve Christman, they show an interview with Davey Allison on the importance of tires. They return with six laps to go and Earnhardt leads Kulwicki, Buddy Baker, Terry Labonte, Benny Parsons, Bonnett and Davey Allison as the only cars on the lead lap.
With the green, Earnhardt takes the lead over Kulwicki and it sure looks like they are the only two cars with a shot at the win. Kulwicki starts to shrink the gap between the #7 Ford and the #3 Chevrolet. Wallace is back out on track but still smoking. Baker, Parsons and Labonte are battling back in the pack as we come to three laps to go.
As they come to two laps to go, Kulwicki gets by Earnhardt for the lead but Earnhardt goes door to door with Kulwicki as they go into Turn 1. As they take the white flag, Earnhardt stretches his lead but for a moment. Going into Turn 1, Kulwicki does the bump-and-run. Going into Turn 2, Kulwicki loses the lead as the car rises up the track. This allows Earnhardt to brush past him on the bottom.
Kulwicki tries to make the up the distance through Turn 3 but it’s Earnhardt with the win! Even knowing that Kulwicki wasn’t going to win, that was still some exciting racing. Baker, Parsons and Allison are the rest of your Top 5.
Kulwicki says this was the best run of his career and he’s happy but disappointed to come so close. (Maybe it’s the 1980s VHS version but man, Kulwicki looks like Carson Hocevar.) Earnhardt is getting a very mixed reaction, which is a nice way of saying he’s getting booed. Probably less that people don’t like Earnhardt and more that they were hoping Kulwicki would win. To me, it’s reminiscent of how Matt DiBenedetto almost won the Bristol Night Race a few years ago.
In Victory Lane, Earnhardt gives credit to his crew for getting him to the front and talks about the racing with Kulwicki at the end. With the win, Earnhardt has a 409-point lead over Neil Bonnett in the Winston Cup standings.
(Not to get on this topic but … first race of the “second half” of the season and Earnhardt already has a practically insurmountable lead? Still think the full season point system is going to result in an exciting championship battle?)
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